"Clover Leaf"

Designer:

Charles James (American, born Great Britain, 1906–1978)

Date:

1953

Culture:

American

Medium:

silk, silk/rayon

Credit Line:

Gift of Elizabeth Fairall, 1953

Accession Number:

C.I.53.73

Not on view

The American couturier Charles James was noted for his breathtakingly sculptural creations. A James gown, like this famous Four-Leaf Clover, was a masterful blending of romantic Belle Epoque elegance and sexy mid-twentieth-century glamour. His beginnings as a milliner informed his most spectacular effects, relying as they did on a layered infrastructure of nylon mesh, feather-boning, buckram, and horsehair braid. A James gown did not require hoops and crinolines to hold its form; it could literally stand on its own.